This invention relates to new and useful improvements in devices for protecting personnel from sharp instruments which are to be discarded.
Accidental needle and scalpel sticks sustained by hospital personnel account for many hospital-related injuries. A high incidence of such injuries occurs in laboratory personnel and nursing and physician personnel. Also, housekeeping personnel often sustain injuries from such source.
Most of these injuries occur after the instruments have been used, thus also subjecting the personnel to serious diseases. Since hypodermic needles and scalpels now commonly used are of the disposable type, one method of discarding them is for medical personnel to deposit the disposables in special containers provided for that purpose or in refuse containers. The carrying of such disposables to the special containers, putting them in the containers, and emptying the containers have proven to be a source of injuries. Placing the disposables in refuse containers is also dangerous to housekeeping personnel since refuse containers are mostly hand emptied.
Another source of disposing or protecting used hypodermic needles has been the use of caps which are placed over the used needle. Here again, such caps are not very safe because the needle must be pointed toward the other hand while directing it into the cap, and almost any kind of miss can result in a needle stick.
Various other means have been employed to receive disposable sharp instruments. One such means is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,069 which is directed to a pad to which a plurality of instruments are stuck. When full the pad is folded shut on a center line and discarded. Another disposal pad is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,882 directed along a similar concept of sharp instrument disposal as U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,069.